Evolution not revolution: Sky Sport and Telefonica discuss the use of 5G in sports broadcasting and production By SVG Contributor
Thursday, October 7, 2021 - 12:09
Print This Story
There's currently a lot of buzz surrounding 5G in the public domain. In Germany, for example, over 100 cities are already fully 5G equipped, transforming the potential of day to day activities with promises of lightning-quick connectivity and unlimited bandwidth.
With O2/Telefonica promising full 5G coverage in Germany before 2025, the sports broadcasting industry has already started to realise that it also has the potential to significantly change how we create and consume content.
The Sky and Telefonica 5G Handball Journey panel at the Sky Sport Summit 2021, in cooperation with SVG Europe, was perhaps, for this reason, one of the most anticipated and hotly contested sessions of the event, which took place at the Dolby Cinema in Central Munich on 27 September.
We wanted to give the viewer a feeling of proximity to the match. From action on the actual handball pitch to cheering crowds, the smartphones succeeded in providing us with a totally refreshing narrative, a direct result of the flexibility of 5G.
Alessandro Reitano, senior vice president of sports production at Sky Germany, chaired the panel, which saw Daniel Url, head of global product management at Vizrt, Markus von B hlen, director of trading, devices and digital life at O2/Telefonica and Peter Frantz, CEO of Netorium/ LiveU, deconstructed the recent 5G Handball broadcast, which was the first of its kind in Europe.
The lower-tiered sports event which was 100% cloud produced was broadcast using 12 Samsung Galaxy smartphones to transmit 134Gb of content to Sky's production studios in Unterf hrung.
Astonishingly, the 5G network (including Nokia Airscale technology) at the Flens Arena in Flensburg, Germany, was constructed in just seven days. This experiment of sorts was dissected by the panel, who made some interesting conclusions about what this could mean for broadcasting in the future.
5G as a catalyst for creative production methods The panel agreed that the use of smartphones as camera devices for the Handball event highlighted the possibilities of harnessing new dramaturgical perspectives. Whereas static cameras require lots of space and distance to the pitch area in order to achieve the correct angle, the agility of the smartphone coverage produced new and previously unseen angles, with the added benefit of being able to quickly pan to follow the fast-moving action.
The smartphones gave us a blank slate of sorts upon which to compose a new broadcasting narrative, commented von B hlen. We wanted to give the viewer a feeling of proximity to the match. From action on the actual handball pitch to cheering crowds, the smartphones succeeded in providing us with a totally refreshing narrative, a direct result of the flexibility of 5G.
However, not all panel members were convinced of the quality of such new dramaturgical perspectives offered up by 5G.
While it is true that the agility of smartphones as capturing devices enabled us to create quick pans and unexpected, flexible follows; it's precisely these fast movements which ultimately proved sometimes somewhat borderline in terms of quality, commented Frantz.
As a result, the limited computing capacity and camera quality of the smartphones meant that we did see patches of, what I would consider being semi-professional broadcasting quality.
5G: expanding the definition of viewing consumption? Thanks to 5G's ability to bond different bandwidths and channels together, data and content can be utilised within the same transmissible ecosystem, bringing huge advantages for content creators looking to deliver extra information to devices.
As a result, there is potentially more scope to offer viewers more real-time data, camera angles, match statistics and other viewing-enriching services. Whereas currently such add ons are available to some high profile tier 1 sports events, there is a definite democratising factor associated with 5G in the sense that such added benefits will also be available when streaming lower-tier sports events.
We have to think about what kind of added value 5G can offer a production, continued Reitano. With the ability to distribute more content, we can assume that the viewer has access to better quality footage with greater engagement. If the handball event has taught us anything, it is that 5G is going to totally transform the viewing experience of lower-tiered sports events.
Potential 5G pitfalls While 5G will inevitably lead to positive changes on the creative side, the panel were, however, unanimous in their concerns about the deployment of 5G. Echoed sentiments included the necessity of guaranteeing a strong and consistent connection: crucial if 5G is to prove a viable alternative for broadcasting in high profile tier 1 sports events.
With consumer data usage already at record levels, von B hlen commented that the imminent introduction of 5G will inevitably accelerate use of data, which in itself could pose problematic for burgeoning 5G production plans.
At the moment we're limited with 5G because of the cost of the infrastructure required to operate it, he commented. Providing enough network capacity to support even a basic service is going to be the biggest challenge for organisers and venues.
As this event demonstrated, 5G is enabling the possibility of turning up to a tier 4 event with a laptop and a smartphone and broadcasting the event entirely using cloud services.
In addition to infrastructure, the issue of signal security was also voiced, especially with regards to the single point of failure present when only one connection is available. Bonding (a process where several channels are lumped together
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
03/06/2026
Liverpool FC and Wasabi Technologies have announced a multi-year extension of their partnership, with Wasabi continuing as the club's official cloud storage...
03/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP as part of the relocation of its n...
03/06/2026
The Riedel Group has announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 201...
03/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the deployment of its intercom solutions at Itaka Arena ...
03/06/2026
Scott Coker has announced six senior executive appointments for his new global MMA promotion, which launched earlier this year with $60 million in financing. Ad...
03/06/2026
Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the FIFA World Cup 2026, has announced its digital and social media programming for the tournament, running Ju...
03/06/2026
The Bundesliga has announced the launch of Captain, an AI assistant built into t...
03/06/2026
Anthony James Partners (AJP) is serving as technology consultant for a moderniza...
03/06/2026
Audio-Technica has announced the recipients of its annual sales rep firm awards for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The awards were presented by Jim Schanz, Executive ...
03/06/2026
iodyne will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 alongside RED Digital Cinema and Adob...
03/06/2026
The broadcaster will deploy 39 cameras for game coverage, six cameras for studio...
03/06/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is providing a great opportunity for not only Fox Sports...
03/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p compatible PTZ Auto Framing camera that uses Sony's proprietary AI to automatically recognize and tra...
03/06/2026
Game Creek Video's Flagship A, B, C, and D unit will wind up its first year ...
03/06/2026
According to Caretta Research, the sports-rights market may be hitting the brake...
03/06/2026
Retrieval still courtesy of Tribeca.
By Jessica Herndon
This year, the Tribeca...
03/06/2026
Step sequencer-style panning tool revealed
Alongside their flagship self-titled sound-design platform, Sound Particles offer an array of creative effects an...
03/06/2026
Now features full H90 algorithm library
Eventide have announced the upcoming launch of the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2, a new and improved version of their hugely p...
03/06/2026
Significant discount available until 1 October 2026
Aim Audio have just announced a promotion that sees a significant discount applied to their Essence micr...
03/06/2026
Clarification: SBS's position on definitions of antisemitism
3 June, 2026
Media releases
Statement by Mandi Wicks, SBS Director of News and Current Aff...
03/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to supply CERTIUM advanced communications system to Memmingen Ai...
Evolution not revolution: Sky Sport and Telefonica discuss the use of 5G in sports broadcasting and production By SVG Contributor 
